


A Number of Quiet Attentions

by McKay



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 17:50:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10813830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McKay/pseuds/McKay
Summary: Severus didn't realize he was being courted at first.





	A Number of Quiet Attentions

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the following quote by Laurence Sterne: "Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood."
> 
> Originally written for Snupin Santa 2007.

Severus didn't realize he was being courted at first. Courting was for other people, or so he thought, and having never been on the receiving end of it before, he didn't recognize it for what it was.

It wasn't as if there were obvious signs, such as gifts of flowers or boxes of chocolate-covered caramels, or poems waxing eloquent about his eyes slipped under his door. No, there was only Remus coming 'round on a more frequent basis and bringing the kind of lemon cream biscuits that Severus liked but couldn't find here. "Here" being a tiny wizard village not far from Toulon, near the Mediterranean coast, a quiet place where no one cared about his past and he could live peacefully without being surrounded by ghosts.

The first time Remus showed up, Severus was surprised but not shocked; he hadn't been trying to hide, and he still used his own name. He even corresponded with one or two people from home, and so he was _not_ shocked that anyone had been able to find him, only surprised that anyone had bothered to look.

"What do you want?" he had asked the first time Remus showed up on his doorstep, calm and smiling and wearing nicer robes than he had been over the last few years.

"I don't suppose the 'I was in the neighborhood' excuse would work, so I may as well come out with it: I want to buy the Wolfsbane potion from you," Remus replied, tucking his hands in his pockets and regarding Severus hopefully.

"Can't you get someone closer to home to do it?" Severus asked, surprised anew by the request.

"There aren't many people qualified to brew it, and those who do charge outrageous fees. I was rather hoping you and I could come to some sort of arrangement. I _can_ pay," Remus added quickly. "I'm working for the Ministry now, so I have a steady wage. It just isn't enough to cover what what the other brewers ask for the potion."

Severus grunted and stepped aside to let Remus come inside his snug cottage, and two hours later, Severus found himself with a bit of extra income and caught up on all the latest news and some gossip from home. Then it was time for tea, and Severus saw no point in kicking Remus out when things had gone well so far. He had never harbored a bone-deep loathing for Remus as he had for Potter (older or younger, take your pick) or Black, and he hadn't always disliked Remus as much as he seemed to - or as much as he wanted to, either. He had long felt a strange little desire to find out what lay behind Remus' perpetual mask of quiet calm; he had seen hints and flashes over the years, and he suspected something far more intense - something fueled by the beast within - was hidden behind a well-constructed polite facade.

He found Remus intriguing, and yet he had never dared reach out. He had always been afraid to take risks with people; it was easier and safer to hide behind his own facade and let everyone think he was a misanthrope. Sometimes, people saw beyond it; Lily had, at least at first, and so had Albus and Minerva. But most people took him at face value and called him haughty if they were inclined to be kind, a first-class prick if they were not.

At first, Remus had only come to collect the potion, but he usually managed to come by before tea and linger until he was invited to stay. Eventually, he began loitering long enough to stay through dinner as well; sometimes Severus cooked, and sometimes they walked to the village to eat at the cafe. By the time six months had come and gone, his visits had extended to a post-prandial cup of coffee, perhaps with _Congolais_.

Severus had assumed that Remus was straight and was not nearly as intrigued by him as he was by Remus, which was one reason why he hadn't realized he was being courted. He knew that Remus no longer had custody of Teddy, but Remus had never elaborated on why - that was the one bit of news Severus most wanted to learn and which Remus refused to share - but he assumed it had something to do with Remus' lycanthropy. Thus he was shocked rather than merely surprised to learn Teddy was not Remus' son at all.

The truth came out at the bottom of a bottle of Rosé de Provence while they lounged in garden chairs behind the cottage and watched the sun set. There had been several minutes of silence, which was not unusual; neither of them were much for idle chatter, and being silent together was not awkward. But as the sun sank, its fiery tendrils disappearing beneath the horizon, Remus began to speak, only the slight slurring of his words letting Severus know that he was saying things he might not have said had not the wine lent him courage.

"We weren't really together, you know." Remus swirled the wine remaining in his glass and stared into the fading sunlight. "We were married. That was real enough! But together? No. She needed help, and I was the only one she trusted who was also suitable for what she needed."

"Help?" Severus prompted, hoping for some elaboration.

"She was pregnant by a soon-to-be-married man," he said, his voice quiet and gentle. "I'm not sure how aware you were of the speculation that Molly was trying to coax Bill into breaking up with Fleur and date Tonks instead, but I'm sure you saw how much trouble she had with her ability that year."

"I heard the rumors, yes," Severus replied, leaning his chin in his hand. "They were true?"

"Not quite." Remus' expression turned to one of wry amusement. "Molly wasn't trying to push Bill toward Tonks; she was actually trying to set up Tonks with me, but they had already gravitated toward one another anyway. They had an affair that meant more to her than to him. She was devastated when he said he didn't love her and it was simply pre-wedding jitters on his part. By then, she was already pregnant, and..." He shrugged eloquently.

"And you got up on your Gryffindor charger to save the lady fair," Severus concluded, punctuating his remark with a derisive snort.

"Something like that. We never intended it to last, but neither of us had any other prospects, and I really am quite fond of Teddy. Andromeda knew, of course, and I didn't argue when she requested custody; we agreed to let everyone think she couldn't bear having her grandson raised by a werewolf. She's a Black. She doesn't give a damn about public opinion, only protecting her daughter. I could have pressed for custody, I suppose, but if the truth about his paternity came out in court, it would have undone everything. Bill doesn't know Teddy is his, and he and Fleur are happy. There isn't any need to disrupt their lives at this point, and Andromeda said I can see Teddy whenever I like."

"So you and she never..." Severus waved his hand back and forth, and Remus gave him a fondly exasperated smile.

"I'm gay, Severus."

"Oh."

Severus blinked over that for a few moments, and then a strange warmth bloomed in his stomach and spread out heated tendrils to warm him from head to toe, and he glanced sidelong at Remus. "So am I."

Remus didn't comment at the time, but when Severus thought about it later, he realized that was when the courting become more obvious. Soon, Remus was giving him little things - the lemon cream biscuits, a subscription to _The Daily Prophet_ , a display box for his medal that he could hang on the wall - and doing little things like preparing his tea the way he liked it, washing up after dinner, and tidying the parlor. Really, looking back, Severus thought he ought to have noticed sooner, but it wasn't until Remus kissed him that the penny dropped.

Severus, who hadn't been expecting to be kissed and therefore hadn't been able to recover from his astonishment in time to enjoy it properly, gazed at him with wide eyes and said, "Do it again." Fortunately, Remus smiled and obliged.

It wasn't his first kiss, but it wasn't far from it; Severus had little experience with kissing, but he was eager to learn, especially since Remus' mouth was warm and tasted like tea, and the gentle probing of Remus' tongue in _his_ mouth made his knees go wobbly. By the time Remus had unfastened the first four buttons of his high-necked robes and had begun trailing kisses along his throat, Severus was leaning heavily against the wall, relying more on it than his own legs to keep him upright.

"Does it hurt if I touch here?" Remus asked, stroking the scars on Severus' neck lightly, and Severus shook his head, unable to stop shivering when Remus kissed those as well, and he clung to Remus, fisting his hands in the back of Remus' robes.

Somehow, they made it upstairs, and Severus found himself on his back in bed with Remus braced over him, and he shivered again when he saw a feral light in Remus' eyes, knowing he was going to be allowed to see behind the facade at last. Reaching up, he framed Remus' face between his hands.

"I haven't done this before. You'll have to teach me," he admitted. That he was still a virgin at his age wasn't something he wanted to confess, but pride urged him to explain why he wasn't adept in this area.

"Really?" Remus' eyebrows climbed at that. "Why not?"

Severus searched his face, seeking any faint hint of mockery, but all he saw was curiosity, and that let him relax. "I didn't want to give Potter and Black more ammunition at school, and after..." He shrugged uncomfortably. "It has always been difficult for me to trust, and during the wars, it wasn't safe for me to become involved with someone for any number of reasons."

Remus nodded, and Severus saw understanding mirrored in his eyes. "Then I'm honored to teach you," he said, bending to kiss Severus slow and deep and lay him bare with gentle hands.

Severus' breath caught in his throat at the first slide of Remus' bare body against his, his touch-starved skin aching for more and more and more; decorum and control were forgotten as he arched beneath Remus' stroking hands, lost in a haze of pure sensation unlike anything he had ever known. He writhed as Remus bit and lapped at his nipples, scarcely able to believe his own body was capable of giving him such pleasure; he moaned and buried his fingers in Remus' hair, not caring how wanton he might seem when he twisted up in a plea for more touching, more kisses, more teasing bites. He would be covered in marks later, but he didn't care, not when Remus' teeth grazing his skin felt so good.

And then Remus prepared him and entered him slowly, so slowly, and Severus lay still and wide-eyed and utterly amazed that Remus was _inside_ him, and even the stretching burn as Remus breached the tight pucker of his arse was an exquisite pleasure. He bent his knees and spread his legs, and he rocked his hips up to send Remus deeper, feeling connected to Remus - to life - to the whole bloody world for the first time instead of feeling apart from everything, the perpetual outsider looking on and wishing for more. Now he was a part of _this_ , and it was brilliant.

Holding still within him, Remus sat up and curled his fingers around Severus' cock, massaging the head with the foreskin offering delicious friction, and Severus moaned low in his throat, feeling the aching tension building within him. He wanted this to last forever, but his body - exultant and desperate - had other ideas, and it was surging quickly toward orgasm; he clenched his hands on Remus' thighs and arched his back, gasping, hovering, and his release was a full-body detonation when it hit, wracking him with shudders and making him cry out.

Swooping down, Remus swallowed his cries in a hungry kiss and began to move, thrusting deep into Severus' oh so pliant and willing body; Severus wrapped his arms around Remus and held on tightly as each thrust rocked him, and he gasped again when he felt Remus' shuddering release, clutching Remus closer for a moment before the inevitable end of their connection.

A few minutes later when the mess had been cleaned up and they were under the rumpled covers instead of on them, Severus lifted his head to look at Remus, who seemed quite content as he nestled against Severus' side. "Will this be happening again?"

Remus opened one drowsy eye. "I hope so. Do you want it to?"

Severus couldn't quite get himself to say 'yes', and so he nodded instead. He wanted this to happen again lots of times, but he couldn't think of how to say that without exposing himself in a way he wasn't prepared to do just yet.

"You don't have to pay me for the Wolfsbane potion anymore," he said instead. This time, Remus opened both eyes and regarded him with curiosity mixed with wariness, and it was the wariness that let him know how that had come across. "I didn't mean it like that," he added crossly, annoyed at himself and at the sting of heat in his cheeks that he knew meant he was blushing. "I only meant that I would brew it for you whether you paid me or not because I want to, not because you're having sex with me."

The wariness faded into a smile that warmed Severus down to his toes, and he knew that had been the right thing to say.

"Thank you," Remus said softly, propping himself up on one elbow and running the backs of his fingers along Severus' cheek. "You know, I've been thinking perhaps a change of scenery might be nice. There are a great many memories at home, most of them unpleasant."

"True," Severus muttered. He would wait and see what Remus said and not jump to hasty conclusions, but he _hoped_...

"It isn't difficult to travel back and forth when I want to visit Teddy," Remus continued in the same thoughtful tone. "And I have developed a fondness for this area." He gazed down at Severus and smiled. "It has certain features that I find quite alluring."

"You would fit in well here," Severus replied, feeling as if he couldn't quite get enough air into his lungs.

"I've already found one place to _fit in_." A mischievous sparkle appeared in Remus' eyes as he ran his forefinger along Severus' jaw. "On the whole, I think this village would suit me. I saw a cottage for sale not far from here. Within walking distance."

Severus darted his tongue out to wet his lips. "That would be convenient for you to pick up the potion."

"And for other things."

"Yes." He nodded, knowing he probably looked as eager as he felt, but for once he didn't care, because Remus looked eager too; the polite facade was gone, and somehow, Severus _knew_ he wouldn't see it again when they were alone like this. It would return when they went outside and there were other people around who didn't need to see too much, but here, they were safe, and the walls were gone for good. "Other things."

"Good." Remus' voice was a husky whisper, and he bent to kiss Severus, a sweet and lingering kiss that warmed him even more than the smile.

Severus didn't realize he was being courted at first, but he knew when he was loved, and that was better than flowers, chocolate-covered caramels, poems, and even lemon cream biscuits any day.


End file.
